Immobilization of Nano-sized TiO₂ on Glass Plate for the Removal of Methyl Orange and Methylene Blue

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is the most researched photocatalyst due to its potential for dye removals in wastewater treatment. However, the TiO₂ powder suffers from agglomeration which hindered its process of industrialization. Thus, this study was carried out to immobilize nano-sized TiO₂ on glass plate via doctor blade technique and the crystal structure and surface morphology of the samples were accomplished using XRD and FESEM. The effects of operational parameters such as effect of light and pH in the removal of methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB) using the as-prepared TiO₂ films were investigated. MO achieved a removal of 95 %, while only 47 % removal efficiency for MB after 120 min under UV-light illumination. On the other hand, percentage removal for MO and MB are recorded as 65 and 28 % respectively under LED light irradiation. The photocatalytic removal of MO and MB was found to be mainly due to the adsorption-photocatalysis process, while the photolysis process is almost negligible. The kinetic study indicates that the photodegradation rate of MO and MB is fitted to the pseudo-first order rate model.